A Quantitative Assessment of Sustainable Development Based on Relative Resource Carrying Capacity in Jiangsu Province of China

Unbalanced development is an urgent issue that needs to be resolved in the sustainable development strategy of Jiangsu Province, which inhibits Jiangsu's industrial transformation and upgrading. A relative resource carrying capacity model is extended based on resource carrying capacity to analyze the resource carrying capacity of the different regions of Jiangsu Province. Three indicators of water resources, land resources, and energy resources are included in the natural resources. In social resources, factors of population quality are included in the analysis scope. Based on the improved model, this paper analyzes the relative resource carrying capacity of Jiangsu Province. The results show that: (1) under both traditional resource carrying capacity model and the improved model, Jiangsu Province has a surplus population; however, there is a certain difference between the result from two modules; (2) contributions of environmental resources, economic resources, and social resources to the comprehensive carrying capacity of resources is obviously higher than the contributions of natural resources; and (3) significant regional differences exist in relative resource carrying capacity within Jiangsu Province between the southern region and the middle region, in which the capacity is surplus to the population demand, and the northern region, in which the capacity is overloaded.